Powergen shuts call centres in India

London, June 16 (UNI) Powergen, Britain's second-biggest energy supplier, has decided to close down all its call centres in India and run them on its own, after customer complaints.

The move, announced yesterday, comes a year after Britain-based bank Abbey was forced to shut its call centres in Bangalore as its customers reported unhappiness with the bank's 1,000 employees.

Calls to Powergen, owned by Germany's E.ON, will now be answered by an adviser in the UK, who will not have call targets.

''Our advisers will now focus on fully resolving a query rather than answering a specific number of calls,'' Mr Horler said..

Powergen Managing Director Nick Horler said, ''Offshore call centres may have their place for certain industries. However, we believe that we can best achieve industry-leading customer service by operating solely in the UK.'' He added, although the cost of overseas outsourcing can be low, the company is not prepared to achieve savings at the risk or expense of customer satisfaction.

This step on the part of Powergen will lead to 980 jobs in the UK by the end of this year.

It will also raise the starting salary for all the new British call centre staff, The group also announced plans to launch new, clearer bills for its six million customers.

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